Labour Markets, Poverty, and Development

As we reach the turn of the millennium, the disparity between developed and developing world is of increasing concern. Labour, Poverty, and Development brings together a worldwide mix of contributors from both the academic and practitioner sides of the current debate, combining rigorous economic analysis and broader-based theorizing to provide a detailed picture of the causes, effects, and implications of the current situation in the developing world.

All the contributions stress the vertical relationship between macro trends and micro functionings of markets. Part I deals with the interaction between employment and growth and trade policy, investigating the positive relationship betwen growth and emplyment, and the connection between trade liberalization and better working conditions. Part II looks at the situation in urban areas: the crucial and often hidden role that the informal sector plays in the urban employment market and its connection to the formal labour sector, and the collective decision-making involved in gender differentials in education. Finally, Part III investigates the other side of the ruralurban divide, with a detailed micro-study of labour supply in rural communes in China, and an analysis of a common developing-world poverty trap: the spiralling relationship between destitution and low productivity.